While it is unclear when Stillwater High School established an official nickname, it is likely that nicknames were informal because the Kabekonian, Stillwater Gazette, and the Stillwater Arrow (former school newspaper) used nicknames interchangeably. In the early years, the football team was often called the “Red and Black.” In time the team was often referred to as the “Croix” and the “Prison City Eleven” or “Prison City Warriors.”
Despite these two primary identities, the future name of the school was born long before it became the namesake. On Friday, November 5, 1926, Stillwater traveled to Lexington Park for a football game against St. Paul Mechanic Arts. When the dust settled, the smaller but speedy Black and Red and Croix, ran like “ponies.” Throughout the next two decades, the three nicknames shared the spotlight. In 1945, the football team was called the Ponies while all the other sports teams were still the Croix. However, by 1946, the Kabekonian featured an image of all four teams - football, basketball, baseball, and track and field - designated as the Ponies.
Not only is our connection to the nickname unique but our school logo is one-of-a-kind as well. The logo was created by Pony alum Paul Strohbehn (Class of 1974). As a freshman, Strohbehn won a contest in art class at Stillwater Junior High. The class was taught by Steve Forseth also a football and track coach.
The Pony became the football team decal in 1971, and later the high school also began to use the logo. The school district adopted the Pony as its official logo in 2014. As far as we know, we are the only school in the world that uses this logo.
